Beyond Walls
Client: Multiplex Construction Europe Ltd. and NHS Lothian
Funded by: NHS Lothian Charity’s Tonic Arts Programme
Edinburgh Children’s Hospital Charity
Architect: HLM Architects
2022
Beyond Walls is one of the largest art in healthcare programmes in the UK, involving more than 40 individuals and teams – from graphic designers to sculptors, illustrators to composers – contributing to over 26 projects.
There is growing recognition of how enriched environments can help to reduce stress and anxiety – this is placed at the heart of our programme. The emphasis is on the integration and enhancement of the patient experience from arrival and waiting to treatment and ward spaces, with projects focused on way marking, providing dignity and distraction.
Beyond Walls demonstrates how art and therapeutic design can be successfully developed from the perspective of NHS clinical, nursing and allied health professional staff, the public, and in collaboration with artists and designers. Formed by Ginkgo Projects, working with NHS Lothian and the main building contractor Multiplex Construction Europe Ltd along with the building architects HLM Architects, the Beyond Walls programme identifies new hospital buildings as once-in-a-lifetime opportunities to build for better services, incorporating new technologies, and a chance for fresh thinking about what it means to care for patients, their families and carers.
Artist-led commissions, embedded within the design of new hospital buildings, allow space for creative expertise within the commissioning process, and the social and cultural aspects of the city to be reflected in its hospital. For Beyond Walls, focus was placed on a people-led approach through participatory practice, building relationships between artists and designers, hospital staff and local communities. A place-based approach led to the leveraging of local and regional cultural resources and partnerships, for the benefit of all involved.
NHS Lothian’s Royal Hospital for Children and Young People (RHCYP), the Department of Clinical Neurosciences (DCN), and Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) all have significant histories and, in moving to a new shared building, the ambition was to create a new chapter, which the Beyond Walls programme aimed to address.
EXPLORE BEYOND WALLS BY STRAND
WONDER
Wonder draws out the multifaceted use of distraction, which has traditionally been associated with children’s services. In this project, the benefits are extended to specific aspects of adult services.
I AM NOT A NUMBER
I am not a number explores how artists and designers have helped shape dignity and personalisation, the complement to distraction, and a vital aspect of a caring environment.
THE WAY THROUGH
The Way Through addresses wayfinding. Providing effective wayfinding is a multi-disciplinary challenge involving NHS staff, architects, wayfinding signage designers, and artists.
TIME AND SPACE
Residencies and Fellowships within the Beyond Walls programme created opportunities to build relationships between the hospital and the communities which it serves.
Read the publication: Beyond Walls
Learn more about one of the largest art in healthcare programmes in the UK in this new, extensive publication. Published by Ginkgo Projects in 2022.